Travel Startup Tripoto Raises Pre-Series A Round Led by IDG

Online travel community startup, Tripoto has raised pre-series A round of funding led by IDG Ventures India with participation from existing investor Outbox Ventures. The company didn’t disclose the deal amount, however it is believed that the investment round is just under $2 million (Rs 12.5 crore), and values the company between Rs 15 crore to Rs 40 crore. The firm will continue to scale up its community and is looking to acquire the new talent on both technology and creative team.

The company funds will be primarily used for growth in mobile, team augmentation and building upon the early success already seen in global expansion.

As part of the deal, Karan Mohla from IDG Ventures India would be joining Tripoto as a board member post investment. In November 2014, the company had also secured a seed round of $400,000 from Kunal Bahl & Rohit Bansal (founders, Snapdeal), Sachin Bhatia (Founder, MakeMytrip and Truly Madly), Outbox Ventures among others.

Tripoto provides a platform for travelers to share and discover itineraries and stories, plan their trips, upload travel photos, write reviews and connect with like-minded travelers. The startup claims to have a million monthly users on its web and mobile platforms. Over the past three months, Tripoto has witnessed 100% growth in web traffic, while mobile traffic has seen much higher growth.

Apart from this, IDG had invested Rs. 8 crore in Bengaluru-based online home rentals firm, NestAway with participation from InMobi founder Naveen Tiwari. In India, it had also made investment in companies such as Flipkart, Myntra, Yatra, Newgen, Brainbees (FirstCry.com), Vserv, Manthan Software, Valyoo (Lenskart.com), Ozone Media and Actoserba (Zivame.com).